Painters Building Computers
27/Aug/2004 7:05 AM
My wife bought me a laptop computer and a digital camera in March 2000.
I was quite happy about this. I took my two shiny new techno-treasures
down into the rat basement, where I do all my painting and work, and
plugged it in, and powered it up for the first time, and was
immediately 'dazed and amazed', when the screen lit up, and beaconed me
into the 21st century.
And thus, the story began...
I had owned a couple computers prior to my stroke in 1994, and was
familiar with DOS, and a very old version of Windows, and going
on-line, which meant logging onto CompuServe, and reading and
replying
to text messages, and sending CompuServe email (there was something
called Internet email, too, but it was just becoming available on
CompuServe), and the Web was still unheard-of by most people, and only
a
rumor on CompuServe. I was on-line within a few days. The difference
between going on-line with a 1994 computer, 4 MB RAM, and a clunky
Text-Interface CompuServe connection with a 9K modem, and going on-line
with a Y2K computer, 128MB RAM a graphic interface, connected with a
56K modem, was culture shock.
It took me about two minutes to notice all the images. I'm a painter.
Hmmm... let's see... a painter, with lots of paintings, now has a
laptop computer and a digital camera, and there is a thing call the
'Web', where anyone with a few dollars per month to spend, can rent
space on a server, and set up a website, to post their paintings,
writings, etc. So in April 2000, with the help of a savvy friend,
robertwittig.com was born. Damn, this is cool! My work, on-line, for
the whole world to see, instead of just being stuffed into a dusty room
up in the attic!
Then one day, when I started up my laptop (which I treated with an
incredible degree of care)... it booted up weird. It did boot up, but
it was not 'right'... something was 'wrong'... the screen was all
messed up, and the keys not responding properly. I rebooted the
machine, and the second time, everything was fine... but the seeds of
paranoia and insecurity had been sown.
What if my beloved computer didn't start???
What would I do???
How
much would it cost
to fix it???
...and at this precise point, I decided that I was going to start
studying up on computers, so that one day down the road, when it
wouldn't start... I would be prepared.
So I began reading and studying a little every day, but most of what I
read, I didn't understand, so I read it over and over again. One day
while I was out in the alleys, walking my dog and foraging for 'good
stuff' in the trash, I spotted a computer that someone had set out with
the trash. I carried it home, and then went back for the monitor.
Monitors are quite heavy. One can get in good physical shape, carrying
a computer monitor just a few blocks. Heh.
When I got the computer home and plugged it in, and powered it up... it
actually worked fine. It was old and slow, but working. I began
finding and lugging computers home... some working, some not... but now
I had some raw material to practice on. Armed with a few very basic
tools and an anti-static bracelet (later I graduated to an antistatic
mat), I began to swap the parts around and see if I coud make a working
computer. This gave what I was reading in the books some direction. I
eventually began to learn the basics of computers at the hardware
level, mostly with junk parts and computers, and a few things purchased
on eBay (eBay was a real eye-opener for me, to the real potential of
the web).
At the same time, I was messing around learning BASIC from a book,
trying to understand what it was that made programs work. Gradually I
also picked up C/C++ and Perl, so that I could actually write little
programs and scripts that worked for me
(mostly glorified batch
files, or modifying and recompiling someone else's source code). Paint
all day, and in the evenings, mess with computers and study... the
pattern began to evolve.
Much to my surprise, people actually began to buy a few paintings from
my website... nothing big, but enough so that the computer and its
connection to the Internet began to gradually become 'critical'. The
email and browser had
to work... money was involved. Purchasing
Anti-Virus software and keeping it updated became 'critical'. If I
sustained a virus infection, it would cost me time, money and the
ability to do business.
It's funny what a couple hours study every evening can accomplish over
the span of four years... in 2000, my beautiful little laptop and
digital camera were wonderful tools... but if they were to stop working
suddenly, I was powerless to fix them, or retrieve my data from them...
the tools were in charge of the situation... not me. By the beginning
of 2004, I had a small rag-tag army of junk computers... all networked
together into a small LAN, and several of them were redundant... so
that if one stopped working, there were two set up and loaded, ready to
take its place. My little laptop was still the best and most powerful
machine by far, and still running 'almost' perfectly... it's one of
those
computers with a 'personality'. While I had been busy painting and
studying and messing with junk computers, I had also been saving up a
little money, here and there, so in the spring of 2004, I was ready to
make the final jump... to build my own computer, from scratch.
I had done a lot of studying, and using computers, by then, so I had a
pretty good idea of what I needed in a computer, as a painter, who was
by then selling his work steadily on-line, with both website, and on
eBay. Because of all the time I had spent on eBay, selling my
paintings, buying occasional computer stuff, and studying (yes, one
really can get a good education at the University of eBay), I bought
just about everything I needed for the project, on eBay.
In about 2002, my son had given me (not sure why) a very expensive,
high end, dual Pentium processor mainboard (aka motherboard). I had
been studying and admiring that mainboard for two years, so I had a
fairly good idea of which parts to buy. I set to work bidding for the
stuff I needed... processors, memory (RAM), hard drives, CD and DVD,
various cards, etc., and a top notch monitor and video card. I'm a
painter, and image editing is a big part of what I need a computer for.
I wound up having a few junk parts that worked nicely, too, from my
years of scrounging. Amazing, some of the things that people throw out.
I got lucky on eBay, and won a huge (29" tall) server case with
casters, that doubles as a small table. Then... I assembled everything,
installed all the drivers, an operating system, and my necessary
software. Heh! No... it wasn't *quite* that easy. At one point, I
thought I had ruined everything by trying to add a stick of RAM without
first unplugging the machine (a VERY bad idea), but fortune smiled on
me, and I only scrambled the CMOS settings, which was repairable at no
cost... once a friend of mine told me to try clearing the BIOS settings
by shorting the jumper on the mainboard. Without that little gem of
information, I might easily have thrown the mainboard in the trash.
So now, I am typing this article on the most powerful computer I have
ever had
the pleasure to actually type on, and I built it from scratch, myself.
And that...
the ability to build it myself... is far more valuable
than the computer itself. Why? ... because now, balance has been
restored... I am in charge of the computer, and not the other way
around. The fear, paranoia and insecurity that I had felt four years
ago, when my beautiful little laptop started improperly... was gone.
Painters can
build computers. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
The technical details of this project are not all that important. The
important things are that the computer fits the jobs that need to be
done, and that the painter (me, in this case) has control over the
technology, and not a helpless end-user, who must rely on others, if
the computer should fail (heh... when the
computer fails... all
computers eventually fail).
For my computer project, I was given a mainboard that was more powerful
than my needs, thanks to my generous son. I focused on two factors when
planning the computer, knowing that if these two factors were
satisfied, the computer would suit my needs.
I needed a computer that would permit me to print high end graphics, to
sell on eBay and my website. Making fine art prints suitable fore
sale is a very demanding task. I had purchased an Epson 3000 printer in
2002, for very little money... but the printer demanded far more RAM
memory than 128MB, to actually open and print large graphics files
well... so my new
computer has 1 GIG RAM, more than enough for my Epson 3000 printer. I
also purchased a good video card and a high end (but slightly used) SUN
monitor, suitable for a CAD/ Graphics workstation.
I still have my Epson digital camera that my wife purchased for me,
with my laptop computer, but I also purchased a tabloid scanner (12" by
17" scan bed, slightly used) for graphics input, because my digital
camera does not have the ability to capture enough detail, for high end
graphics printing.
The second factor I had to fulfill, was data security. Data is only as
secure as it is redundant. An image file, an accounting database, a
client list, an entire website... if it exists only on one hard drive,
and that hard drive fails completely... is completely and
irretrievably gone.
I installed 5 hard drives, each 80 GIG in size on my computer. One hard
drive contains the operating system, and a copy of my working data. The
other 4 HD's are for back-up of the three 'mission critical' machines
on my LAN... including regularly updated images of all the operating
system hard drives, so that should an Operating system HD fail (with
all of the applications I regularly use on it), a new HD can be
installed and formatted, and then the back-up image can be copied back
to it, so that I will not have to re-install the OS from scratch, and
then each and every application, as well.
My plan is to keep... as much as possible... the operating system and
applications on one HD, the data on another HD, data back-ups on a
third HD, and OS disk images on the remaining two HD's in my 5 HD array.
Print grade images are huge. A *.tiff image capable of printing a 12"
by 16" print in '1440 dpi' mode on an Epson 3000 printer is between
200MB and 500MB. To manage these images, I will need either a DVD
burner, or another mass storage device. Right now, I have a CD-RW
burner, which will be Ok for some stuff, but not for the really big
images. Eventually, I will wind up replacing my DVD drive with a DVD
burner, that can also read.
The computer project was an enormous education. The ability to use the
knowledge, and turn it into a computer, and use it to understand how to
repair a computer when it breaks down, and to configure a computer so
that the data, and disk images are secure, and to have a plan in place
and ready to go, for the day when you push the 'Start' button, and
nothing happens... is far more valuable than the machine itself,
though. Being 'computer literate' from the motherboard on up... is a
necessary 21st century skill, for anyone whose job demands a computer,
and the data stored in the computer. If you can't 'do it yourself', you
are going to have to pay someone else to 'do it for you'... and hope,
that they really, really, really know what they are
doing.
I advise any and all 21st century painters to become masters of their
computers, and owners of their data. The easel, the computer, the
printer, the 'points of sales', the website, the museum... they have
all drawn a lot closer to one another in the last ten years.
Ten years from now... they might be parts of an almost seamless whole.
A computer, and a solid Internet presence... once a mere
curiosity in the fine visual arts, will in all probability become an
absolute necessity. If you want something done right (short of
surgery)... either do it yourself, or at least know how to well enough
so that you can hire someone genuinely competent, to do it for you.
The Project:
Eye Server Case w/Power Supply $65.00
MSI Dual processor mainboard:
0.00
Mainboard
connectors
10.00
2 Intel P III 500 Coppermine CPUs 44.00
2 sets, CPU fan and heatsink
11.00
SDRAM ECC, 1
GIG
136.00
3.5" floppy
drive
23.00
nVidia Graphics card - 64 MB
45.00
5 80 GIG Hard
Drives
290.00
Hard Drive mounting brackets
15.00
Set of IDE cables
(round)
50.00
CD-ROM
drive
20.00
DVD-ROM
drive
10.00
CD-RW
drive
50.00
Sigma Graphics DVD decoder card 30.00
APC Surge
protector
28.00
Sun 20"
monitor
150.00
-----------------------------------------------
Total:
$977.00
Robert C Wittig
August 27, 2004
wittig@robertwittig.com
©2004, Robert C Wittig. All rights reserved.